NFL – Redskins Will Fail With Shanahan

Dan Snyder was desperate to find a Super Bowl champion building coach, and he may have found his man in Mike Shanahan, but the details of the deal make this an almost impossible task for the former coach of the Denver Broncos. Yet I’m not balking at the $7 million per year that Shanny will reportedly earn as the play caller of the Washington Redskins. The problem here is the unreasonable amount of responsibility that he is taking on in Washington.

Apparently Shanahan is getting carte blanche on all personnel decisions for the Redskins, meaning he gets final say on players signed and drafted. He’ll also be in the middle of contract disputes, rookie holdouts and he’ll be the last line of defense against blood thirsty agents. Taking on all those responsibilities along with designing a playbook, coaching and mentoring his players is a lot to ask for even for a guy as experienced as Shanahan.

Shanahan has been in the coaching ranks since 1975 where he started as an offensive assistant at the University of Oklahoma. It didn’t take long until he was an offensive coordinator at the University of Florida by 1980 and then he broke in to the pro ranks with the Denver Broncos in 1984 as a wide receivers coach. Bouncing around between the LA Raiders and the Niners, Shanahan eventually settled in as the head coach of the Denver Broncos in 1995, a position he held until 2008.

As a head coach, Shanahan is one of the most decorated in league history. He has two Super Bowl victories with Denver and is 138-90 SU. He also has three conference championships under his belt as a coordinator and a third Super Bowl ring as an offensive coordinator for the Niners.

So Snyder and the Redskins got the guy they wanted. But have they put him in a position to win? The biggest question mark on the team is Jason Campbell, who after 5 years hasn’t exactly endeared himself to the Redskins betting faithful. Obviously, those looking to make him a worthy Super Bowl bet have been let down hard. Shanahan will reportedly bring back Campbell for one more season, but the search for his replacement could take place as early as the 2010 NFL Draft, where the Redskins pick fourth overall.

Of course, retooling the offense is Shanahan’s responsibility on paper, but he’s also working with an owner who hasn’t been able to keep his dirty nose out of the business of his NFL asset. Snyder has been a headache for any coach that has worked under him, and Shanahan’s “my way” attitude may cause a huge meltdown in the front office. That will ultimately, as it always does, affect the Redskins on the field.

How many people could really handle the dual posting that Shanahan has embraced? Some say Belichik. Others say Andy Reid. I say nobody. If anything, all Snyder has done is take the Redskins back about two years instead of positioning them to enter the playoffs moving forward. This move, if anything, stinks of the same crap that the latter years of the Joe Gibbs era did.

It’s a different name, a different face and a different team. But the results will be the same. The Redskins will never succeed as long as Dan Snyder keeps meddling with the fine tuning that coaches need to apply to their teams. Success, as the Patriots and Colts will tell you, takes years of effort and grinding and Snyder isn’t exactly showing the patience of a virgin priest. Sorry, Washington fans. You may have gotten the man your owner wanted, but all you’re in for is more of the same.

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